I spent the weekend on a Plane of Hate raid with ORQ,
Organized Raiders
of Quellious. It's a collection of raiders, not tied to any one guild. I was
really looking forward to it because I've been hoping to get Harmony armor for
Galiana. Not that it's uber, it's not. It's comparable to Thurgadin armor,
stats-wise. But it's super rare and would give me a unique look. When I got
there, I found the level 60 chanter who said he'd come didn't, so guess who dual
boxed? Ah well.

The first night was kinda slow, mostly first floor killing. Clerics and
warriors and shaman got some armor, as expected. The Maestro went down, as did
two Hands. We called it a night at 1 am PST and the plan was to resume at 8 am
PST. Now, I haven't gotten up at 7:30 on a Saturday in ages, but kept thinking,
Harmony, Harmony. Log on and the place is a ghost town. Innoruuk and the mini
bosses are gone. There's maybe 40 mobs on track. WTF? We thought some uber guild
came in while we were asleep and really hosed us.

However, there was a patch that night and it fouled the plane. We petitioned but
GMs were nowhere to be seen. Sony's policy of letting GMs float between servers
is just plain idiotic. After an almost four hour wait, the raid was called until
later in the day, and
boy was I grumpy. I'd been expecting company that evening and wouldn't be able
to play So I went to see the Harry Potter movie (big letdown) to cool off and came
home. My friend no-showed, so I could play. Our prayers were answered. The GM totally repopped the zone. Every
miniboss was up along with Inny. It was time to own.

Well, at least Inny is teaching his minions some manners.

Kat, you potty-mouth. :)

We had a total of three shattered emeralds drop, which meant
some very happy rangers. Get this: when the Lord of Loathing dropped his, we had
four rangers roll for it. Look what happened.

According to the retired Arkinia, the odds on that happening are
1 in 8 million. He's an engineering major so I'll assume he knows how to do
math.

The Insidious robe went to Craakk, the lowest level chanter on
the raid. Melisan and Norlin both had the robe already. So I lined
up all three chanters for a great shot of their matching
robes.

Galiana was skunked. Not one piece of armor dropped on the
second floor despite two days of killing. And then there was this indignity.

Finally, at 1 am, we went after Inny. Now I was a bit concerned,
because I've been with groups like ORQ before, like Xegony Alliance. They tend
to not be as solid or as cohesive as a guild, which raids together daily. Guilds
are closer, tighter units than these types of raids. Some cocky Lotus Cult
friends were saying one group could do Inny, and in my warrior friend's defense,
he's right when he says he exps on mobs in PoV that hit harder than Inny.
Getting grav-fluxed across the room was an interesting experience. But we got
him. All of Galiana's DoTs stuck. With his constant dispelling, Melisan was
re-hasting tanks non-stop.

All in all, a great
raid. Next one I hope to leave Melisan home (dual boxing on a raid is a real
drain) and walk out looking like the druid on the left of
this shot. My thanks
to Tenebrosity of Fallen
Eagles and Juror of Healers United
for running a great raid.

Skyshrine has been redone, mostly just to move mobs around and add a bunch. But
it doesn't appear to be finished. I mean, how else do you explain this:

Doesn't look like a drake to me. Notice the perspective. Galiana was looking UP
at him. Anyway, the armor quest mobs were moved down quite a way, but they are
easy to miss. Go through the maze like you always do, and when you come out and
click on the globe, you pop into a hallway. On your left will be a
door. Click on it and they are all inside.

One thing I've noticed is there are a LOT more mobs in Skyshrine, particularly
the courtyard area where you first zone in from
Cobalt Scar. This should make pulling tougher, which is undoubtedly the idea.
Also, you don't need a key to zone into Cobalt Scar any more. Just jump on the
platform in the water and click on it and you will pop in CS, right on the ramp
that leads to SS.

I am Mork from Ork. Nanu nanu!

Today's silly name.

November 21 - Back in action

It's sure been a while. As you can tell by the new address and banner, there's
been a shift in direction. I've sorta put the druid on the back burner as I play
an enchanter, which has proven a ton of fun lately. So I decided to make this a
non-class-specific site and just document my adventures, regardless of the
character I play. So I will be making the site less druid-specific.

Now I've noticed that PoP has essentially killed the old world zones and with
good reason. The experience is insane. With Melisan in a group, I get 1% AAXP
per kill, and that's in a group of six. Nothing in the old zones even comes
close. My favorite spot is the Plane of Disease, mostly because I can't pass the
farking trials to get into Valor and other zones.

I've drawn up a crude
map in Photoshop, since
EQAtlas and the other sites haven't made one yet. Basically it's a symmetrical
zone with a big green river. You can safely zone in to the zone from PoT, right
at the graveyard, and shout LFG. Nothing roams near the zone in unless some fool
trains it. I'm not sure where the Puslings are, but they are a regular camp. The
spiders are in the southern area. Look on the map and you'll see Spider Cave
marked. That whole area has loads of spiders and usually supports three or four
groups of people.

The courtyards are the most popular, with
LCY the most in-demand camp in the
game. The Diseased Underbulks are vicious muthas, hitting for 350. You
absolutely need a shaman or chanter to keep the tanks alive in this zone, and
having watched a druid try and fail to be the sole healer, a cleric is also a must.
RCY
isn't too shabby either, although it has pathing issues. Some times a third
group will camp here at the entrance. There's only one way in, through a wall of
bone, and they can draw from bugs on both sides.

I've been on Plane of Nightmare. Exp isn't quite as good but it's really a
striking zone. It's in permanent twilight and the monsters look amazing.

Been something of a slowpoke lately because I've been playing an enchanter and
enjoying it a great deal. AE groups are the best way to exp. Pull 40, 50 mobs
and blam. But that doesn't mean I'm abandoning the druid or my work here. The
Plane of Hate guide has been upgraded and I've added a
Kael guide. Both are in Other Stuff on the menu, or you
can click on the links in the previous sentence. I'm also working on quad kiting
guides for the TD raptors, CS otters and ME toilers.